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Steve Boyd on
line - Newsletter In this issue: Let
the Audience Speak An effective way
to maintain rapport during a presentation is to let the audience speak.
I don’t mean audience members will get up during your speech and make a
presentation themselves, but there are ways of encouraging them to speak which
connects them to the speaker and the speaker to them. This also
heightens audience interest in what the speaker is saying. The purpose
of this article is to demonstrate ways of making this happen.
First, encourage them to sing with you. You don’t even have to be able
to carry a tune. Sometimes you can refer to a familiar song that has a
point you are making in your speech. Sing a line of the song and invite
the audience to sing with you. This will at the least provoke a smile
and maybe a chuckle. I talk about reframing a message as a way to handle
disagreements; I use Rudolph and show how guiding the reindeer with the light
from his red nose was reframing the problem he faced. Then I start
singing, "Then one foggy Christmas Eve,..." and ask the audience to join in.
Put a sentence or idea on the screen and ask a member of the audience to speak
it aloud. I talk about excitement in sharing information and stress punching out key words. I put a sentence on the screen
such as, “That is the ugliest dog I have ever seen.” I ask someone
to read the sentence stressing "ugliest" and then ask for others to
read the sentence stressing other words in the sentence. Of course
stressing a different word gives the sentence an entirely different
meaning. It is entertaining, audience members laugh, and rapport is
strengthened.
Provide a reason for audience members to provide personal information. I
talk about remembering names and then use some of the names of audience
members to demonstrate how to remember that name. This personalizes the
information and the audience provides the evidence to illustrate the
point. Another principle I discuss in my speeches is that we are all
connected. Then I’ll count off 25 from a section of the audience (and
sometimes it may be a part of the group that consists of people who don’t
seem that interested in what I am talking about). Then I have those 25
people give their month and day of birth aloud and often there is a match before we finish
getting through the group of 25.
Applaud those who participate. After any of the above activities, have
the audience applaud those who participated. I find that it is a natural
action to take after someone has successfully accomplished what I asked of
them and everyone seems to enjoy affirming other members of their group.
I might say when there is a match on birthdays, “When they came to this
speech today, they did not know they would help prove an important point from
this presentation. Let’s give them a round of applause for making it
happen.”
Encourage the audience to hum with you. A great way to create unity and
rapport is to hum together. There is no pressure because the audience
does not even have to know the tune or words to a tune. For
example, I talk about projection in communicating. I have the
audience touch their breast bone as they say “aah” and ask if they feel
vibrations. If they do I mention that they are probably projecting their
voice well. I sometimes will say pure sound is simply saying “aah”
as the physician directs you as he/she examines your throat.
If the audience speaks during your speech, then your words will more likely be
remembered because the audience has helped make your points. At the
least a speaking audience will stay interested longer and will be more alert
when they know that they as well as you will have opportunities to talk during
your talk.
Questions Often Asked A question I am often asked is, "How do you show enthusiasm when you are delivering a highly technical presentation?" Punch out statistics with more force. If a statistic is worth including in your presentation, then the statistic should be said with extra vigor. A good way to make sure this happens is to pause and then punch out the number. Illustrate the significance of the statistic by telling a story. Telling the story with gestures and facial expression will invariably increase your energy level in delivery. Seek to include a story for every ten minutes of content. That way you will insure high energy level throughout the presentation. A presentation is dull not because it is too technical, but rather because the speaker does not include techniques to create high energy.
One of the keys to effective public speaking is knowing when to stop--and I
don’t mean just at the end of the presentation. Stopping within a
presentation is also important. Your story can be too long or
contain too many statistics. You may take too long to answer a question;
you may spend too much time on a visual aid.
The general principle for all of these speaking elements is to stop when
audience interest is at its peak. In telling a story the speaker should
have a sense of direction. Never take too long to describe a scene and
don’t take too long to get to the point of the story. The story has to
be exceptional to take more than two minutes of speaking time. When you
get to the point of the story--stop! Don’t explain and review the story
after the punch line; this is the time to move on. Let the point of the
story be what you leave the audience to think about. If you feel a need to
explain the story, you probably have not done a good job of telling the story in
the first place.
Answer a question as concisely as possible. Your goal should be thirty
seconds or less. The only person really
interested in knowing the answer may be the person who asked the question; the rest
of the audience will get bored quickly with information that is unimportant to
them. In addition, if you take too long to give your answer the audience
will lose interest. If you start summarizing and repeating parts of your
answer, you have gone too long. If you can answer a question in one
sentence or with one word, do so. That will insure that you have finished
at the height of audience interest.
In providing statistical evidence, seek to stop with the most significant
statistic and divide statistics into threes if you have several to give.
That is all the audience can assimilate at one time. Providing information
in threes is a pattern that audiences respond to with good attention.
If you are telling a funny story, and the audience does not respond as you
expected, do not explain what you think they may have missed--just move
on to your next point.
There certainly is a point about knowing when to stop at the end of the
presentation as well. Know before you begin how much time you have to
speak and then plan to stop a couple of minutes before time is up. Learn ahead of time if your time limit includes the question and
answer period. If it does, time your speech to include a five- or ten-minute
question and answer period. Tell them as you begin the question and answer
period how much time you will allow for that and then deliver your conclusion
after the q and a. This allows you to control the end so that
you can stay within the time frame. Our culture is very time-conscious and
a speaker will be perceived as more effective if he or she does not exceed the
time limit.
The point of speaking is not just to share information with an audience;
it is also to know when to stop sharing information. In summary, here are
guidelines for saying enough.
1. Don’t explain too much.
2. Remember to stop at the height of audience interest.
3. Don’t summarize too much.
4. Seek to say less rather than more.
Leave the audience wanting to hear more. You know you have succeeded when
you hear departing audience members saying, “Time went so fast; I could have
listened for another hour!” MORE BOYD'S BENCHMARKS Mark Twain: "One word may be effective, but no word is as effective as the rightly timed pause." J. R. R. Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost." Mardy
Grothe: "Some
people dance because they're happy. Others are happy because they Marv
Levy: "You
have to take chances. If Michelangelo had wanted to play it safe, he
would Charles Dickens: "Make them laugh, make them cry, but above all make them wait!" |
| About Steve Boyd | Products | Contact Steve Boyd | E-Mail Steve Boyd | |||||||||
| Dr. Stephen D. Boyd 31 Winston Hill Fort Thomas KY 41075-1047 Phone: 859-441-6520 | |||||||||
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